Work Text:
08/27/2000
"Wait, wha…? How did that happen?" Jean scrambled to sit up from her curled-up position and rub her very small-looking eyes when she realized, by turning on the TV in their common apartment, as Logan had asked her to via her cell phone, she'd established a video link to his hotel room. Well, that answered the question of whether that camera on the upper monitor frame that Scott had equipped all teachers' living quarters with during the last few weeks, was doing its job.
"Don't ask me. I'm the team's tech Neanderthal, remember?"
Logan dropped on the far too soft, narrow bed after adjusting that certain miracle device on his own TV in a way so that Jean would clearly see his body sprawled across those sterile white covers. Hopefully, a better view than he was treated with it. It was difficult, keeping even that askew grin on his lips at his girlfriend being once more far too pale and thin, something that immediately had his stomach clenching. Fuck, and here it had been only 2 weeks since he'd left … Far too long already, apparently. The metaphoric kick in the ass in the shape of that visual connection to his lover, he'd have to thank his team leader for upon his return, probably in the shape of some booze. Scooter and he were notoriously not horribly into talking to each other verbally, which this surprise in Logan's bike, found at the first rest stop, had once more proven.
"Little gift that your ex-lover hid in my ride. Something from the Shi’ar I think? They tinkered a lot with that whole video call thing lately in that laboratory in Canada where you guys get your equipment."
"Really." Jean did visibly her best not to burst into laughter, still trying to turn the mess of her dark red hair into something presentable before wrapping the cover around her almost see-through thin nightgown, much to Logan's distaste. "So Scott and you have entered the gifting phase, huh? Might want to be careful. At the latest when you two start on the wedding preparations, you'll actually have to admit for once you don’t hate each other's guts half as much as you pretend."
"If you're trying to distract me from being half-naked, it's working." Logan shuddered with a grimace admittedly a little too exaggerated indeed, in the light of that silent support from Scott for keeping better contact with his lover than during Logan's last journey.
Even if that help should mostly soothe the bad conscience still plaguing Summers after their last mission together, Logan wasn’t above gratefulness when someone did something nice for him. Aside from the fact that they'd both fucked up at that stupid attempt of a cyber-attack on the Brotherhood's last lair, and Logan rarely cared a lot for apologies anyway … Summers was trying to be less of a douche than in the beginning.
That made it a lot easier for Logan, suppressing the reluctance about settling down in some rich old guy's swanky mansion of all places, filled with a bunch of freak kids to occasionally teach and take care of.
Not exactly how he'd imagined his life to be when he wasn’t busy chasing the part of it before 1985 that his amnesia robbed him of, no. But all grumpiness about such compromises aside … Westchester did have one reason absolutely gorgeous on the in- and outside to get back there as often and long as possible. And if there was one thing that this admonishment, badly disguised as mission instructions, from Logan's dear team leader had spelled out very loudly, it was, never to leave said anchor out of his sight and mind for too long. That woman simply deserved better; that was one of the few things, Summers and he could agree on.
Something better than Logan, too, for that matter. But Jean had made her choice in that regard, and Logan was far too deep in his feelings for her at this point for self-flagellating himself into trying to change that.
In tonight's case, that meant, making the best of this conversation, for whether or no, it would be the last for a while. "Besides, before you castrate the guy for flirting with: The camera's instruction manual said, that thing was actually meant for taking you guys with me to Alkali Lake on my phone, in case I need a second pair of eyes there. Not gonna happen, though," Logan added when Jean tilted her head in curiosity, obviously intrigued by that prospect of going with him from afar.
Truth was, he'd have loved to hear at least her smart voice on that hike. But not only because of all the current crises with politics and the Brotherhood that required Jean's attention being on Mutant High all day, that would remain wishful thinking. "Reception up there and around the facility isn’t worth shit, remember? I'll probably be out of touch for a couple of days. I'll make it quick."
"Don't," Jean rebuked him gruffer than expected, rubbing her temple with two fingertips in a gesture that had Logan suspect the reason for her actually having been asleep for once instead of working the night away in her lab, as so often. "You fast-tracked things last time, and that ended with you leaving right again because you had the feeling you missed something. I'd rather have you be thorough this time than see you take off again in a month."
"I can't promise you that's not gonna happen either way, you know."
Jean knew; he wasn’t telling her that for the first time. Which was not least the reason for their few phone calls so far being rather short and stiff this time. The mood had been nonstop soured from the moment he'd turned his back to Mutant High.
Which was why Logan was also determined to not risk another physical separation anytime soon, especially when he had to fear he'd find his girlfriend hooked to IVs and force-feeding tubes by the time he came back. "Already told you, next time I want you with me though. As soon as you get a little meat back on your bones. With how you look right now, you wouldn’t make it through a single day out here."
"You realize I'm a fighter on a military special forces team, which incidentally demands extreme physical fitness, right?" Jean tiredly started combing through her hair again, not a bit of bite to her slightly offended answer. She knew damn well herself she wasn’t taking care of herself properly right now and that Logan didn’t need his enhanced senses to see that, even via a slightly grainy, experimental video connection.
"I'm trying, Logan. I'll stock up on the smoothies for breakfast, okay? It's not eating too little that's giving me migraines, it's my mind keeping me from sleeping right. I'm on three Advil if you need to know, and I still feel like something's trying to break through my skull from inside. I'm fine," she added quickly, rolling her eyes when Logan sat up a little, torn between the wish to either just abandon this probably second useless trip right away, or at least end the call so that Jean could go back to sleep.
"Talking to you helps me feel grounded. It gives me something to focus on, to keep my thoughts in order. They keep on going haywire far too often. I hear half the house in my head without wanting to. I no longer even function right." With a dejection that didn’t seem to come only from these problems with her powers, Jean's gaze wandered to the ground, towards the direction of the student floor, a disapproving shake of her head aimed solely at herself.
"Something happened?" Logan didn’t really want to ask because for once, he would already have heard if something catastrophic would have gone down at the mansion. And bringing this up anyway would only derail things from that so critical subject of Jean's health. But he also didn’t want Jean to think he didn’t give a crap about possible issues with the pupils when in truth, he'd long come to care for those annoying, charming fleas living in that house more than he would ever have expected it from himself.
"Nothing big. Kitty had a little accident. It's alright, just a few bruises. But when I examined her, I saw …" Jean paused, in clear discomfort, with another downward glance but shook her head in frustration then. Some things were not between them to discuss.
Ironically, Logan had a pretty good idea anyway about what his lover had found out there when taking care of her young patient. His enhanced senses allowed him keener glances than most, and to notice details like suddenly missing perfumes and artificially altered proportions.
But some things were simply no one's business until the person in question decided it was.
No matter how much it might hurt Jean's pride, not being let in on certain proceedings in this home of hers. "It's obvious she doesn’t want to talk about it right now, so I won't but … I should have known far sooner, Logan. Even my work's starting to pass me by in a haze at this point, that's how much my telepathy is messing with me. This needs to stop. The pupils can't suffer from my damn inability to get a handle on my mutation …"
"Take the drama down a notch, Red," Logan interrupted her, not unkindly but firmly as he always tried to when Jean threatened to get lost in unfounded self-doubts about a gift that was supposed to be so much more powerful, according to Ol' Baldy at Mutant High, than Jean was supposed to explore yet at this stage.
Maybe that was a mistake; maybe it was about high time she demanded of her beloved Professor to help her finally perfect all these things she could do with her beautiful mind so that it would stop asking too much of her as it obviously did right now.
Logan was not a mutant biologist or a damn shrink. That wasn’t his assessment to make or his job, though he did make a mental note to give Xavier an according kick in his damn condescending behind upon his return.
But Jean was his job. She, as a person, not as mutant, not as a doctor, not as a fighter. Jean with all the enchanting things she was, apart from the usefulness she offered to the people in that school. "With all that's been happening with Lehnsherr, and McCoy roping you in for his little science projects that you don’t even have the necessary qualification for? You're overworked, that's all. You need a damn break, been telling you that for a while. The kids are far more resilient than you think. They had to become that early. Wasn’t it you telling me that in the first place? So stop beating yourself up for being a human being who needs proper food and sleep just as regularly as everyone else."
"If you keep it up with the food obsession, I'll have you feed me when you're back." Jean grumbled a little about this still-not-exactly favorite subject of hers. But there was a thankfulness shining in her dark eyes that Logan got to appreciate more at each of these talks.
He'd never thought himself to be much of an empath; that was more Jean's specialty. With most of his life missing from his mind, he didn’t even begin to know his own damn self properly, leave alone have the perceptiveness to deal with others when they were struggling.
But Jean … Jean, he thought to be able to see through by now to some degree. And setting that sweet head of hers straight every now and then proved more fulfilling than Logan had expected it at the very beginning when imprinting on that woman, his hormones overwhelming him from the first look at her.
Not that this desire had been dampened even one bit since that first slightly rough meeting on the sick bay, but at least Logan had enough of a grip on his instincts by now to not immediately tell his lover to lose her clothes. Talk first and all.
"I just hate to see you moping when all you need is a little sugar and carbs. Take Freckles out for a coffee tomorrow and get her to talk if you think that's necessary. And gobble some double chocolate muffin or something while you're at it. Then you'll both be fine."
Jean pondered that for a moment but then shook her head. "I don't think she's ready for that yet. It's alright. Piotr is with her now, and I'm pretty sure he knows what's up. He'll keep an eye on her. She's just passed out because she's been overworking on her computer for a while now. She and Bobby are dead set on nuking the Brotherhood's network again so Cat will be safer from them. I told them several times, Charles won't change his decision about Cat living with Emma just because of a couple of new firewalls, but … You know them. They're very fond of her. They miss her a lot."
Logan's movement to his cigar package on the nightstand stilled at a subject breached that served far more effectively to curb the flashing heat in his veins for a few minutes than a few drags of smoke in his lungs could. Not again.
Again, that too-tight tone in Jean's voice, that distance she was talking about a person with who'd used to be so close to her only months ago ...
Nothing that would usually have demanded Logan's attention given he wasn’t exactly suited for the negotiator job either ... Except he couldn’t help but wonder once more about the reason for that growing enmity between those two women. Irritating confusion about Jean possibly regretting her decision against a certain ex-fiancé of hers was more often on Logan's mind since their conversation right before his departure than he liked to admit.
He wasn’t beating himself up over that half as much as his Kitten from Germany lately had, sure. But with now both Katja and him gone for a while … What if that created an additional breeding ground for Jean and Scott to reminisce old times a little too intensively? In any case, Jean didn’t sound like the return of Scott's girlfriend in the foreseeable future was a priority for her …
"And you don't?"
"Don't be ridiculous. Of course, I do." Only these suddenly too-deep lines around the corners of Jean's broad, full lips were definitely a warning not to dwell on that little grievance in her life for long. "But as you don’t tire to point out: I have been struggling with my fitness lately. Not to mention my powers being more and more unreliable. As long as both Scott and I are compromised in our suitability for battle, we can't risk the Brotherhood launching a full-fledged attack on Mutant High just to kidnap one of us. Cat is safer with Emma for the moment."
It was Logan's turn to put Jean off with an exhausted gesture to the side. That discussion wasn’t exactly new, and for his taste, Jean was sounding a little too much like an echo of Xavier in it. With those misunderstandings between Jean and Katja apparently still poisoning the air, it was better to let those girls cool their heads for another few weeks more before thinking about solving this whole shit.
Little as Logan liked pondering his own emotional world all day, he was ready to admit, his determination in that regard was growing. And not only because Scott would be drooling over his ex-girlfriend a lot less, with his actual partner back around to drag him into the next best more or less hidden corner every few hours, to fuck. Early morning runs were also so much less dreary with someone next to Logan having no problem either with keeping up with his pace or with keeping their mouth shut. Someone, not feeling the need to dissect every single detail of his work in that damn house either, as Scott was so fond of, during sparring together. It was rare, meeting people you were comfortable being silent with.
"Emma's not her home or her team leader though, Red. If we don’t want Lehnsherr's war-mongering to succeed, we need to keep people in the house together. The Kitten's quickly becoming a reserve player we're gonna need on missions if things get even rougher out there."
"Tell that to the guy she's engaged to. It's not me, trying to wrap her in cotton. When you get back, we'll talk to Scott about it, and to Charles, alright? With you advocating for Cat so much, we might be able to sway them at least about the length of her exile. Looks like she has an enthusiastic protector in the house anyway."
Under Logan's deepening scowl, Jean reached for the nightstand and downed another pink pill already waiting there dry, never letting go of his gaze via the cameras, with a look in her eyes Logan had a hard time placing for a moment because he'd never seen it before. It was similar to the one he saw in the mirror more often lately than he cared for. A look that, therefore, ironically enough, helped fight a certain stupid feeling inside instantly.
Apparently, he wasn’t the only one sometimes struggling with possessiveness although there was not even a need for it. Jean knew obviously exactly where she belonged, after all, so he could live with that very well.
"I never realized you and Cat were that close. Do I need to wonder if you're attracted to her?"
"I'm attracted to a lot of people, Red," Logan answered matter-of-factly, just a hint of anger about the baseless accusation stirring in him along with the confusion that this was apparently coming as news to his lover. Maybe she had better control over her powers than she gave herself credit for if she'd never by accident sensed certain meaningless notions in his mind to the natural reactions of his body. "Comes with the feral genes. Cells programmed to breed as often as possible and all. Doesn’t mean I'm acting on any of those instincts as you should know best. If you don’t, you're very welcome to probe my head in detail the next chance we get. You know I got nothing to hide there from you."
The brief distrust gone as quickly as it had come, Jean promptly blushed a little and lowered her head, mumbling an apology that sounded sincere.
"Just make sure that chance comes soon," she added softly when he just smiled at her, that brief clash already half-forgotten. "You're missing in this house and from my life just as much as she is, you know. And in a couple of regards, definitely far more." That came with a mischievous little wink, a dramatic sigh as Jean vaguely gestured across the half-empty bed.
"Oh yeah? I'm thinking, you should tell me about that. In detail."
Logan's grin grew, and it grew dirty when Jean closed her eyes for a moment at the slightly deeper, rougher tone in his voice making it clear, that had not been a polite request. "In fact, I'm pretty sure you should show me. Lose that cover, Red. And your nightgown, while you're at it."
A hint of natural rebellion sparkled in Jean's darkening eyes at the rapidly changing mood and those instructions that she wasn’t always feeling like listening to. She was enjoying being on the other side of that little power play just as much as Logan was, occasionally indulging in the same with her. But something about the honest longing that had crept into his last words, about the way his eyes were hungrily mapping out her silhouette under that thin blanket, not a bit deterred by the slightly too bony shape suggested, in spite of his complaints regarding her diet … This never changed, despite their occasional fights over trivialities.
More often than not, those were only foreplay anyway. "You first," Jean finally demanded, more playful than strict though, her fingertips already tugging on the thin satin of that cover. And when Logan, entirely unfazed, stripped off his shirt and briefs, openly revealing that the quickly loaded mood didn’t leave him unaffected, she followed suit just as fast.
The sight of her alabaster skin, her sweet firm curves, the flush slowly spreading there, never failed to leave his blood pumping harder through his veins even on a damn transmission. "So? Like what you see?"
"I'll have to take a closer look to say," Logan answered with a low chuckle, his hand already on his now definitely rock-hard cock for a few lazy tugs and squeezes because fuck … There were some things you never needed to tell Jean twice.
She immediately scooted closer to the camera and stuffed a thick pillow under her hips so Logan had a delicious view of the smooth skin between her legs, already glistening slightly, when she spread them for him willingly. Considering they'd never indulged in something like this before, hadn’t even talked about killing time with something like that when he had to be traveling, Jean caught on surprisingly fast.
This time it didn’t hurt, thinking this was probably not the first time anyway Jean was offering a partner of hers such a precious sight to remember on the way. This time, she was doing it for him, that was all that counted. "That all mine, Red?"
"Only yours." It hadn’t even been an innuendo but the deeply sincere words rolling from her lips along with a first quiet moan as Jean's fingertips found her bright nipples mended a micro crack in Logan's heart that he hadn’t even been aware of, lingering there ever since that damn thing with the mental link between Jean and Scooter.
They were apparently still doing best with as few words as possible.
"Show me," he demanded, a hungry growl mixing into his words that had Jean shiver again and thrust her hips up lightly against a touch Logan wouldn’t be able to grant her for a few days to come at least. Which served better as a reason to keep his trip short than any verbal plea. "Show me what you want once I'm back."
"Only if you keep up. Do that faster." Jean raised an eyebrow at his throbbing midsection, and yeah, that was definitely the expression of someone not getting off on long distance together with someone else for the first time. "Want to see how hard you get for me …"
She licked her lips slowly, provocatively, when Logan gladly listened, tightening the grip of his right hand on his length, his other one joining the fun in an equally harsh grip on his balls. "Just like that …"
Under Logan's increasingly heated gaze, Jean brought her hand not busy pulling even harsher on her reddening nipples than Logan had dared to so far, to her lips, licking her fingers tantalizingly, one by one, before sucking them into her mouth, hollowing her cheeks, demonstrating unambiguously what she would have been up to right now if she'd been here.
Fuck, that woman would be the death of him.
She brought her wet fingers to her other nipple to give it the same treatment, her legs parting even further as her right hand slowly wandered lower, her nails scratching a thin red line over her stomach, the insides of her beautiful thighs, the movement never quite going where Logan wanted to see it though. "Tell me."
"Ride them for me, Red. Show me how horny you are." The slight discomfort, about trying something that was new at least to Logan's wiped mind, about the vulnerability of giving himself over to his lover's commands and glances, was long gone. Left was nothing but the painful clench of his muscles in his loins, the twitching of his length in his agitated hand, the rush of adrenaline from the twinge of pain in his balls that kept a quickly building, far too early height at bay. Thanks to his restricted availability in the days to come, there would probably not be another encounter like this before his return to Westchester, and Logan was determined to make the best of it.
"Hmm … Can't you hear?" Jean rasped, her eyes falling close when her hand finally found its target. A slow caress only made those thrusts of her hips worse before her fingers slipped lower, the audio connection indeed soon filled with the obscene damp gliding noise of her lust.
The sounds from Jean's lips became increasingly impatient when she started to fuck herself on two, then three fingers, hard and fast, without any real satisfaction for that growing need that was glowing on her gorgeous face arising. "Fuck … Need more … Need you …"
"Soon," Logan promised her with dry lips, cursing not for the first time his decision to ever go on that damn journey, and not only because he could have done so much of a better job in this bedroom right now. He could only assure Jean, it would be memorable, next time they'd share this bed. "Suck them for me, Red. Tell me how you taste."
The blush on her cheeks promptly deepening, Jean followed that request as well, a little hesitantly at first when she stretched out her tongue, letting it dance across her juice-slick hand while her hips were bucking helplessly from the sudden missing touch. But when she saw Logan's eyes wide with lust, his own hand wandering, finding the spot behind his balls Jean had used more than once to drive him insane with already, she obviously wanted to give him something more to look at as well and sucked her fingers deep into her mouth, humming lowly. New shivers spread on her arms, her other hand twisting her nipples harder. "So sweet …"
"Put them on your clit, Red. Think about having my mouth there while I got my fingers in your cunt. And in your ass. Both hands, come on. Fuck yourself for me …" Logan had to physically will his treacherous cock to take it easy when Jean let out a high-pitched whimper, her whole body tensing with need at that certain image in her mind, a very vivid reminder of their last night together.
Forcing her eyes open, her lower lip drawn between her teeth, Jean threw a demonstrative glance at where Logan's hand was now only prodding his loins, thumbing at this too-heavy balls just as lightly to keep the fire going and keep it from burning too high at the same time. Again, that hoarse tone in her beautiful deep voice was nothing short of an uncompromising order. "You first."
"You gonn' kill me here, Red." Too far gone to even think about it for long let alone mind, Logan let his own frantically working fingertips slip deeper, not bothering with something to ease the way that he hadn’t thought of bringing on the trip. His healing factor was taking care of the initial brief burning faster than it could become a problem anyway.
They were in tandem soon, an arousing stretch spiced up with the occasional bumping against a highly sensitive spot inside when he went deep enough, while Jean used her spit-slick fingers to circle her own most sensitive spot, squeezing frantically, two fingers slipping into the tightness between her firm, small cheeks again and again, loud moans on her lips alternating with Logan's name.
It still didn’t seem to be enough though, not with how much they were missing each other right now, because while Logan once more arduously staved off a too-early ending of that erotic interlude, Jean suddenly let go of herself with a strained groan, only to stretch up to her nightstand and pull out something with trembling hands that almost had Logan immediately come over himself.
"What? Two weeks without you are definitely too long," she purred at his incredulous glance but then, she couldn’t say a lot more because that silver toy, originating from their little collection at the cabinet's top shelf, slipped between her lips, her tongue rubbing over it in a way Logan was pretty sure just fried the last of his still working brain cells.
"I had that ready for you, actually, you know," she added with a breathless whisper once satisfied with how the toy was shining and slick, torturously slowly bringing it down between her legs, her chest heaving with fast, irregular breaths of anticipation. "Since you love it so much when I finger you, I thought … When the mood is right … You want that, Logan? You want me to fuck you?"
His words having left him, he could only nod at her shakily, because he was pretty sure there was nothing he didn’t want to do with that woman in bed anyway. And because that particular stimulation wasn’t exactly anything new, though rarely indulged in, during his years on the road, as the occasional male visitors among his hookups on the way had usually been those of the passive kind. None of that counted anymore, now that he'd found a woman he was entirely comfortable with, imagining a kind of future that would hopefully make up for the void that was his past one day. With how perfectly they were harmonizing not only in bed, Logan didn’t think such a dream even after a rather short time together to be too far-fetched at all.
"You first," he teased her a little in return, pushing those fantasies out of reach where they belonged for now, because he really wanted to see her fuck herself right now.
Despite all routine of self-control, it only took a few slow, deep thrusts then, of that toy all the way into his lover's dripping cunt, before they were both coming, quivering, with the very vivid images on their mind of how they would make up for the slightly shallow satisfaction of their own making soon.
At least for Jean's damaged health, the little game had been very advantageous, it turned out, her headache gone as she assured him with an embarrassed smile once they'd come down enough to talk again. And now she was actually tired enough for hopefully a few hours of undisturbed rest for once.
So Logan let her bring the conversation to an end, no matter how much he'd loved to have her on the line for a little longer. She could use the rest, that, this call had made clear more than anything.
On his part, Logan could only do his best to make it back to his partner as quickly as possible, to ensure that she would actually get enough of it to recover from whatever was disturbing her soul so much right now.